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The work “The Hand of God” by Auguste Rodin disappeared from the exhibition hall at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, informed the police. Security guards kept the museum closed for several hours to register around a hundred visitors hoping to find the sculpture, but they had to be freed by night because nothing was found. The stolen work measures 15 cm high and is valued at $10,000 dollars. The work had been recently moved near the museum bathrooms and near the exit. According to the museum’s guards, the sculpture was in danger of being stolen because it had no security measures to protect it. The police have estimated the time of the theft at around 5.50 pm. Two Toulousse Lautrec paintings were stolen from the same museum two years ago.

In February 25, 1997, ’The Hands of Rodin’ Exhibited at Philadelphia Museum of Art. This is Part of the press release of the exhibit:

“The Hands of Rodin: A Tribute to B. Gerald Cantor, an exhibition of some 60 works in bronze and plaster (several of which are unique casts), ill be on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from March 27 through June 22, 1997. The exhibition is comprised of important loans from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation and Collection, The Brooklyn Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Maryhill Museum of Art, Washington, D.C., and the Stanford University Libraries. The Hands of Rodin is a nationally touring exhibition that has been organized by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation. The Museum will, during the same dates, present the exhibition Rodin and Michelangelo: A Study in Artistic Inspiration, an exploration of the impact the great Italian Renaissance sculptor had on Rodin, who has, in turn, long been regarded as one of the greatest sculptors of modern times.

“I have always had an intense passion for the _expression of the human hands,” Rodin explained. “There are times when they succumb to destiny. There are times when they seize the void and, moulding it as a snowball is moulded, hurl it in the face of Fate.” The hands sculpted by Rodin are masterpieces of gesture (the intimacy they express in The Kiss, 1886, or the supplication of Saint John the Baptist Preaching, 1878); form (the dramatic, gnarled claw of Large Clenched Right Hand, c. 1885); and, when assembled in combination with other figures, as symbols (The Hand of God, 1898, literally moulding Adam and Eve).

Auguste Rodin was born to a family of modest means in Paris on November 12, 1840. He attended the École Impériale de Dessin and studied drawing at the Gobelins tapestry manufactory, and at age 17 garnered prizes for drawing and modeling. Although he was declined for admission to the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, Rodin gained further training while creating ornamental sculpture for Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, a master of decorative arts. In 1876, Rodin traveled to Italy to study the sculptures of Michelangelo, an experience that proved to be of great importance in his development.”